'Dockless bike crisis' sparks parking zones plan

Tower Hamlets Council is considering designated parking zones for dockless bikes after a petition highlighted what campaigners called the borough's "dockless bikes crisis".

The petition said locals were not opposed to cycling, but to bikes creating hazards on pavements - particularly on the "narrow and congested pavements around Brick Lane" in Spitalfields and Shoreditch.

Chief executive Stephen Halsey said work on parking zones was under way following the call for "swift and decisive action to address the problematic parking".

Halsey said: "The options that are available to the council are to do what Hackney, Islington and other inner London boroughs have done, which is have parking zones."

He added: "That piece of work is currently under way."

The petition was presented to the council at a meeting on 7 October by campaigners Abul Khair, Guljar Khan and Yasmin Haque.

Khair told councillors: "What may seem like a minor inconvenience can quickly become a serious obstruction for people trying to move around safely.

"For wheelchair users, parents with pushchairs, older residents and people with mobility needs, a badly parked bike can mean leaving the pavement and stepping on to the road."

He said he and other campaigners had been raising the issue with senior council managers for the past 18 months but had "seen no improvements".

Khair also suggested using antisocial behaviour enforcement officers to monitor known hotspots and seize bikes causing an obstruction. He further recommended introducing dockless bike exclusion zones.

While campaigners proposed a range of enforcement measures, Halsey said the council's current focus was on introducing designated parking zones.

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